There are many movies set–or partially set–in Paris. From my own memory and various Web sites, I’ve compiled the following list. I have seen only a handful of these myself and relied on Rotten Tomatoes for dates and other comments. You’ll notice that some French-to-English title translations aren’t literal. Double-check content, reviews, and language (in French only, […]
Thursday, October 18, 2007
When I walk southeast from my apartment along Rue Rambuteau, I quickly approach the huge exoskeleton of the Georges Pompidou modern art museum, first opened in 1977. The long escalator snakes up the museum’s west side (see the three views below). But the Pompidou itself isn’t my destination this morning. It’s the area around the […]
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
My cousin was born to visit Giverny: she told me she must visit Giverny if she did nothing else on her visit to Paris. Seeing Claude Monet’s gardens and studios was what she had to do before she died. There was no getting around it, so we bought tickets for the Cityrama bus tour to this […]
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
A croque-monsieur (translated as Mr. Crunchy, maybe?) is a toasted or broiled cheese sandwich, sold in restaurants and at many street stands throughout Paris. The cheese in a croque monsieur is typically gruyere or Swiss. The bread, unfortunately, is a standard white bread, and the meat is usually jambon (ham), but I’ve also seen chicken used. […]
There are 36 bridges that cross the Seine river in Paris. If I walk straight south from my apartment, I cross the river at Pont Neuf, the “New Bridge.” This is a bit confusing, since “neuf” also means “nine” in French. There is a bar near me on Rue de Pont Neuf called “Pont 9.” Even more confusing […]
Public drinking fountains in the form of small cast-iron sculptures are scattered throughout Paris. They are “Wallace fountains,” named after Richard Wallace, an Englishman who was raised in Paris by his grandmother. Wallace designed and financed the fountains’ construction, installing them after the Franco-Prussion War (1870-71).       The siege of Paris and the Commune destroyed many aqueducts […]
Saturday, October 13, 2007
I wasn’t going to go near a Starbucks for my two months in Paris. I was working on the principle that I’d avoid all American franchises. Especially a franchise that sells coffee in a city that makes great coffee. Actually I was pretty surprised to see Starbucks here. I would have thought France would try to keep Starbucks […]
Que la force soit avec eux–may the force be with them–is on the cover of Paris Match magazine this week. France’s national rugby team les bleus (the blues) plays England’s team on Saturday night in the semi-finals. I don’t know if England’s players are “the whites” or what. Rugby teams seem to be called by […]
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I’m a western American, a Californian. I don’t do Nutella. My son’s girlfriend is an eastern American, a Floridian. She does Nutella. And at many of the sidewalk creperies here in Paris there are huge jars of the stuff with spreading knives ready for duty stabbed into the gooey stuff. Parisians definitely do Nutella.                                                          Nutella […]
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Five drunken people broke into the Musee d’Orsay early last Sunday morning, October 7. How the police knew they were drunk from the surveillance video, I don’t know exactly. Authorities don’t think the thieves–more properly “vandals”–were there to steal paintings. It wasn’t like they hated Claude Monet, the Impressionist painter best known for his studies of water lilies […]
